Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1887-03-19

Heaven, can find anything In the character On
God that shall enable him to look upon wife
damned and children damned in hell he ought to
90 to hell himself and be damned. But where in
the whole economy of divine government, as
made manifest in Scripture, is there anything
that justifies such thought of God?
Continuing, Mr.. Beecher said:
Whatever may be the future, whether men may
drop into annihilation-and there are large mum
bers of learned men of the church of Christ in our
day who believe that Immortality is the gift of
God through faith in Jesus Christ, and not the
natural economy of the world, and that men un-
sustained by this power of grace in them die as
the animals die-or if you regard the other life as
one in which men enter upon q probationary
period again. and through spiritual evolution work
their way up by and by to higher standard and to
admission to glory-in whichever way you look
upon the condition of the future, one thing is
tain, there is no revenge there wrath, no smoke
of Indignation no heartless hating rejoicing over
the sufferings of any creature. being that can
look upon intense suffering, which has no remedi-
able power in it, suffering without any other end
than that they shall Suffer-a being that could
look upon that and snuff it up as sweet incense
ought never to be called Gods 1t is cruelty, it is
the embodiment of the very hatred and bitterness
which is forbidden by the whole teaching of the
Bible; and calling such character and such con-
1t is abhorrent to every element and every concep-
ton Of the divine nature. For, as Christ wept
over Jerusalem when there was no chance for it,
you may very well understand that God looks
upon men too and sorrows for them when there
is no remedy.
The question is often put by men: ''H the world
has been left to work out its own destruction,
why does he not compel things to be right p
This is simply inSoluble, because no man can tell
what a machine is by seeing the scattered wheels
lying around. No man can tell what picture is
going to be by seeing the canvas aud the mere
ground rubbed in. No man can tell of this world,
which is part of Gods universe, what relation
it holds to other worlds; and it is the completed
administration of God over the whole universe,
when all the various beginnings, the genesis in
this world and in that world and in the other
world, when all these various colors and develop
ments of the power of the soul shall have beer
marShaled and come together and you
see the totality of the administration OF
God, then perhaps man may be in such q
position that he can form such Judgment why
God did or did not. But one thing is certain, that
so far as this world is concerned there are certain
great laws that lead to righteousness, to safety
and to happiness: and certain great laws that
lead through trangresson to dishonor, disgrace
and suffering unreasonable. Why does not Goo
interfere? That you cannot tell, nor 1. When il
is said that God can do anything that is an ex-
travagant phrase. If you take it literally God
cannot do everything.
My brother Charles and were professed theo-
logians when we were about 10 years old, and we
used to discuss that very question, God can do
4 lything." I held high grounds until Charles
sid one day: God can't make sheet of paper
with only one side to it, 1t seems very foolish,
but it is no foolish than the discussions that
have been held in books and sermons. In the very
nature of things impossibilities cannot be done.
***
l finish this letter just in time to catch the
express train for Florida and the south.
60 with a party of United States senators
aud other public men, and hope to send you
some interesting letters during the trip. lie
party aims to see for itself the wonderful de-
velopment of the southern states. 1t is a
social party and neither politics nor the gov
eminent is mixed up in it. 1t pays its own
expenses, and it is composed of both Dem
ocrats and Republicans. The senator's are
Sherman, of Ohio; Butler, of South Caro-
lima; Palmer, of Michigan; Ransom, of North
Carolina, and Henderson, of Nebraska. In
addition to these are Sergeant at Arms of the
Senate Canady, of North Carolina; Gen. An
son G. McCook, of New York; Mr. Babcock,
Senator Shermans private secretary, and
number of senator's wives, daughters and
nieces Altogether we just fill the special
car which Superintendent Barry, of the Pull
man Car company, has selected for us. We
will go almost directly to Charleston and
from thence move ON south toward Florida,
taking in it may be trip to Cuba. After
our stay in Florida is over we will come back
through the new south, stopping in the states
of Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee. Ny
next letter will probably date from Charles
4 FRANK G. CARPTNw- =